A Greens proposal to force Australians to shell out billions of dollars in reparations for climate change and “colonialism” – and to tax “large” family inheritances – has been branded “crazy”.
Documents on the party’s website outline a little-known economic agenda that would severely impact younger generations, who already face exorbitant rent and property prices, comparatively low wages and inflated HECS repayments.
According to the documents, the party has reinvented the idea of an inheritance tax (traditionally unpopular in Australia) and rebranded it as a “dynastic wealth transfer” tax.
The new taxes would also apply to financial gifts, such as housing deposits from parents to children who cannot save money faster than property prices rise.
Other plans include $4.5 billion for “climate reparations” and “the ongoing impacts and legacies of colonialism.”
“As a wealthy colonial country, Australia has a responsibility to contribute its fair share of aid and pay reparations for its role in the climate crisis and the ongoing damage caused by Western imperialism,” the policy agenda reads.
It is not clear where that money would go – whether it would be paid to Pacific nations, as suggested in the documents, or to another international body. It is also unclear how exactly that links to “Western imperialism.”
The party also outlines plans to wipe out all debt owed to Australia in the hope this will inspire other countries to follow suit.
Greens leader Adam Bandt is pictured with his partner Claudia Perkins during the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery Mid-Winter Ball in the Great Hall of Parliament House.
Pictured: People in Sydney protesting at an Invasion Day rally on January 26.
Critics say the proposals, which were brought forward in the last election and are still on the party’s website, go far beyond its agenda of promoting environmental causes, tenant-focused housing policies and sympathy for Palestine.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie told the Daily Mail Australia: ‘The Greens continue to show they are extremists, not greens.
‘The Greens’ current insane economic policies pose a grave threat to Australia. Their extreme agenda is damaging to our way of life.
“But what is most worrying is their passion for disrupting social cohesion and destroying institutions that are vital to our prosperity, our security and our international alliances.”
He said the modern Green Party is a far cry from the environmental group Bob Brown founded in 1992.
The documents, titled “Climate Finance and Reparations,” say Australia “must provide climate finance and reparations to affected countries and communities.”
They also say Australia’s level of aid should be “commensurate with our historic and ongoing contribution to the climate crisis” but do not expand on that idea.
The site also claims that debts owed by other countries to Australia are “the unjust result of colonialism and imperialism” but does not identify which countries Australia would forgive the debt of.
‘The Greens will cancel all of Australia’s bilateral debt and ensure we are a strong and principled advocate for global debt cancellation.
‘By unconditionally cancelling these debts, Australia would signal its clear intention to advocate for broader debt cancellation.’
A Greens spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that policies on dynasty taxation, climate change and colonial reparations were ideas they carried into the 2022 election and did not necessarily reflect their current beliefs.
However, the party has yet to publish its plans for the next elections, which are expected before May next year, and quite possibly earlier, given the recent ministerial reshuffle in the Albanian government.
The importance of the Greens’ policies is particularly heightened this year, with polls showing Anthony Albanese’s Labour Party is highly likely to return to power with a hung parliament.
That could force Albanese to strike a deal with the Greens, independents or both to form a minority government, as Julia Gillard did in 2010.
The 2022 policies are still available on the party’s website under the first menu tab, which is called “Our Plan.”
Greens leader Adam Bandt told the Daily Mail Australia the party will introduce a plan to tax the rich, rather than take money away from average young Australians.
“The Greens will tax billionaires and end tax breaks for wealthy property investors to ensure every Australian can afford to buy a home and that the country’s billionaires can no longer amass more money than ordinary people could ever imagine,” he said.
“Our priority is to ensure that renters and mortgage holders can afford to keep a roof over their heads, that parents can see their children own a home, and that food prices stop rising.”
Last month, Daily Mail Australia revealed that a video had emerged of young federal Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather explaining how the party plans to take power in Australia by 2040.
The 32-year-old, who has earned a reputation for irritating Premier Anthony Albanese, is seen by Canberra insiders as a rising star who could well lead a future Greens government.
Mr. Chandler-Mather told his supporters that each of them gets one vote for every three meaningful and genuine conversations they have with their constituents.
By that calculation, if the Greens could hold 1,866,216 meaningful conversations with Australian voters, they would win enough votes to take power at the federal level.
According to their long-term strategy, the Greens should have won just one additional seat in the 2022 election. Instead, they won three, including their own, putting them well ahead of the target.
In the 2024 or 2025 elections, with 1,633 additional volunteers, the goal will be to engage with 130,635 more voters, with an expected return of three additional seats in the Lower House, giving them a total of six.
In the next five elections, that number would rise to 6,998 volunteers in the 2040 elections, which would mean reaching 559,865 households.
Under the Chandler-Mather plan, the Greens would have nine seats in 2028, rising to 15, 23 and 32 in subsequent elections, and then to the 45 seats needed to form a minority government in 2040.
According to his calculations, 45 seats would allow the Greens to be the largest party in a coalition with Labour, which would have 44.
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